Do you like Winter?

First, I would like to thank Horse Filled Days for her encouragement, with a bit of knowledge of the horse's foot, right about anyone could do it! I read your blog every day... well, I at least look for new stuff! but on that note, I've seen A LOT of people pay big money to have the farrier trim their horses and the results were... hoof cracks, constant abcessing, lameness and these horses were all horses with healthy hooves and a potential to absolutely crush rocks with their bare feet. Unfortunately, most people believe so much in their farrier that they will not take advice from someone like me. I have been asked to trim many horses too, but I don't really have the time and my back is really bad too... usually, after 4 hooves, I'm sore for 4 days! So I do 1 horse per weekend and my sister helps with the harder stuff (like nipping Dandy's feet!).

On to my post. For a change of tone, I will post winter pictures... ok, ok... I don't like winter, I don't like the snow and I totally hate the cold. Unfortunately, I live in a part of the world where we get a lot of snow... and a lot of cold. I love taking pictures of scenery, fall leaves and pretty much anything that is worth immortalizing.

So here is my collection of winter pictures. Usually, the snow doesn't stay in the trees like this, but we'd had some freezing rain and then snow right after, so it stuck good and well to tree branches... sadly, this process, while absolutely stunning, makes it dangerous to go out in the woods and breaks many trees.

This is accross the road from my dad's place, there is a field and a little mountain (Believe me, it's big when you want to go on top!!!!).

Same shot looking left of the first picture.
This is basically taken from the driveway looking to the right... oh and the roads are always that bad in the winter... it hadn't snowed in a few days when I took the pics. There aren't much houses past my parents'.
This is a really cool shot... this is on the left side coming into our driveway. We built that fence like that because the whole land there is gravel and, consequently, very hard to dig into, so my dad had the ingenious idea to build it like that. It is very sturdy and unique!

This was taken a bit further, I was still in front of the house, which would be on my left. This trail leads to a sandy pit and more trails!
Further on my counter-clockwise walk around the house, I captured this. This is a trail that I often use with Dandy and ultimately leads to much much more trails...

I have now made my way behind the house and I was walking back to my car, which would be on the left, when I saw this... The barn is just outside the left side of this picture, this is the mountain at the very back of the house... yes, there is a mountain in front AND behind the house... You can see that there is a trail hugging the side of the mountain and right next to this trail is the horse enclosure... they have woodsey area to run around in and they LOVE it!

And, last but not least... and just because I want to rival Jayke's original butt picture... here's my take on it. That is Dandy's very large bum to the left, rivaled by the 8 month old colt's cheeky cheeks to the right. You can't see very well because it was starting to get dark outside and using the flash only makes it worse!

They look so much alike that it is hard to believe that Dandy is not his Dam... most people think they are related... they are not... not even a tiny bit. He's a purebred Canadien colt, papered and microchipped; and Dandy is a grade Percheron x Quarter horse (I think)... will never have any kind of papers, not a chance. They both have their flaws, but I have to say that for the price that I paid for Dandy, she is worth so much more than that physically and to my eyes (much more to my eyes!). Anyone could walk up and offer me any amount of money that I have ever dreamed about and the answer would still be NO, she is not for sale and if she ever is... that means that I will have eaten a whole lot of plain spaghetti and can no longer afford it!

Now let's all wish very hard... (Harder than that!!!) that we will not get another snowflake! I can't wait to get back on the trails... I can go out to ride, but it is limited and I don't canter in the winter. Horses have been loosing hair and it isn't so cold out!!! YAY!!!

Hoof trimming rant

Seems there is always a question running through my head about hooves. I see horse hooves and I immideatly start to assess them... trust me... it happens more often than not. I am a true critique when it comes to horse hooves. I know that Dandy's feet aren't perfect and it really bugs me to the highest point! I constantly look at old pictures and new ones to see what I could do better next time, what is not the way I'd like it.

I started to study the hoof about 2 years before I actually took nippers in my hands. I would read all kinds of information, study different ways to trim, the benefits and disadvantages of each and I came up with my own method, which is a combination of about two of them. I basically read about 2 hours or more a day for 2 years on hooves. Looked at the bone structure, how it is affected by long heels or any other imbalance of the hoof, looked at the muscle structure and basically vowed to understand all hoof ailments by name and description before I was done. I am actively trimming hooves for all of my horses and they all have their own issues. Dandy has hard-as-rock hooves but are slightly unbabalanced when they are resting on the ground. Peg is base-narrow and her hooves wear much more on one side than the other, I have to trim consequently to insure she is comfortable... forcing her leg in an unatural position for her will only make her lame. At her age, her bones will never change. Pearl has nice hooves but tends to grow long heels that could cause a mechanical founder, she also has a club-ish foot. She is as sound as any unridden 5 year old, at 18 years of age! I tend to not take so much toe off of Pearl since her hooves wear much more than Dandy's.

I have been accused of not having the knowledge or experience to trim hooves, but having seen what I have seen, I'm just as good as any farrier. I've seen a navicular horse barely able to walk, not being trimmed to resolve the problem. Sure, I am not accredited for my knowledge, but I do have it under my belt. I have trimmed horses that were foundered, navicular, flat soled, and with "White Line Desease" all with pretty good results. I am not going to stop trimming my horse's feet because I trust no one else to do it to my liking. I know how to manage my horses and am able to recognize their faults and qualities. I do not think that I am the best barefoot performance hoof trimmer on the face of the Earth, if there is something that I've learned over the years is that you are always better than someone in at least one field, but there is always someone better than you in your best field. I have mentors in the trimming world that have asked me to hold a two-day training in my region... the reason that I do not do that is because, where I come from, people think they are the best in everything. I don't want to give out information that will be twisted and misused on an animal. I post pictures of my trims because I have been asked to by so many people, way before this blog ever existed.

I do not abuse my horses, judging from their fat bellies and their ability to run, buck and play in my field is proof of that. Before anyone thinks they can trim hooves, you need to read up on it, know what a good hoof looks like, know what a bad hoof looks like and how to correct it. I am not aiming any of my readers here, this is not the point, but I have been "attacked" on the subject of trimming hooves before. Anyone that has the guts to say things like that without even knowing what I have been through to get where I am need to shut up. I am currently building a photo gallery to get accreditation and a certificate from the American Hoof Association for my knowledge.

I didn't just get up one day and decided that I would trim hooves, I am not that kind of person. I research everything touroughly and it just so happened that hooves took two years, because it is a complicated structure that has other purposes besides the obvious. I've read the same things over and over and over to make sure that I wouldn't miss anything. I took two years to make sure that I would know what I was doing when I finally took these nippers in my hands. My first trim took 2 hours for two hooves, mostly because my horse wasn't trained and that her hooves were in really bad shape, but I took my time and didn't remove too much. Dandy was sound after the trim and has been ever since.

I know what I am doing and can probably advise anyone who has questions about hooves or problems on what to do to resolve or get better results. You can send me pictures and I will certainly try to help you trim better if you are trimming your horses. I will not bash your work but simply give my best advice. I prone barefoot-ness, but I know that some horses wear shoes and will always do. I have nothing against that, at all... I am even considering putting shoes on the Standards, but again, I will have to reasearch more on that. If I can put them in boots, I would be happy.

So please don't judge a book by its cover, you don't know what people have done in their lives, what obstacles they have overcome and what kind of past they've had. This blog is only a way for me to tell the world about my interesting horse stories and hoof trimming, since it is part of my horse life. I am a complete horse nut, I still look at horse classifieds every day, in case I saw something interesting, that I can't really have at the moment. I am all for rescuing horses, but I am not for pressuring people into rescuing, saving or thinking they can save horses. People have financial responsibilities and horse ownership is a big one to add only because you want to be a hero in the "supposedly" horse world! Don't do it if you know you can't you will regret it for years and people will not instantly become nicer because you have rescued a rank, grade, ugly little un-guelded, untrained, probaly lame two year old colt from the auction. We can try to make a difference, but we will never save all of them, and I'm sorry if I am the one to break it to you. There are only so many good homes, God knows that more than half of the rescued from auction horses end up right back in there. If I would've took in all of the horses I felt sorry for, I would probably have over 50. I can't handle 50 horses, so I have to pass up. Sure, I feel bad, but my savings (or whatever is left of them) thank me!

I will post a bit later about something else... I just had to rant about that! Thanks for putting up with me! :)

Pictures! YAY!

After countless day of not bringing pictures after having promised them ages ago... I got to uploading them yesterday... so I bring them to you!

I got around to doing Dandy's feet this weekend... The were very long, she had lost a bit of dead sole too.

This is Dandy's left front, also know as the abcess of doom foot. It is coming along pretty nice, but both her fronts have an imbalance to them that I am desperately trying to resolve. I will trim her again this weekend too to aim at keeping them balanced. This hoof was mainly long in the left quarter and tip of the hoof. The frog will exfoliate soon, it does every Spring.

Same foot as above, after the trim. The left heel still seems a bit longer, which causes the imbalance, but I don't want to correct it too fast and cause another problem, one little bit at a time. You can see that there is not much left but the water line to walk on and that's the way it should be. You can also see a hole in the white line (at the toe) where the abcess came out. The abcess line is almost completely grown out after about 6 months. Dandy's feet grow way too fast!!! Her wall is so hard that regular nippers don't really cut it anymore... I have to ask another person to help me get the nippers closed to actually cut the wall. I then proceed to thin the wall in a roll (Mustang Roll) to help ease breakover and keep the white line and all inner components of the hoof nice and thightly held together.

Next, we have her front right, which looks an awful lot like the left front! Notice the little ditch between the sole and the wall. That needs to go!

and here's the after. No more little ditch! The photo was taken at a bit of an angle so we can't see as well as we should.

Then we have the back feet... although they still grow as fast, I have much less problems fixing the back feet. See how thick the gosh darn wall is!? This is the right hind foot.

And the After! I notice that the right heel is a tad longer that the left, this may cause Dandy to stand splay footed (toes pointing outwards). I will correct that next weekend! There is also quite a bit of dead sole on this foot too. It will probably fall out during the week.

Here is the last foot... her left hind. It was very long in the toe!!

Pretty nice compared to above. This one doesn't seem to have quite as much roll as the others, but I was satisfied about the way it looked and was completely balanced.

I want to show how concave and wide Dandy's feet really are... her heels are super wide which gives her a good base to walk on, great balance, a nice long stride and incredible traction over any terrain. The scoop or spoon shape permits the hoof to expand and contract like it is ment to, therefore improving blood flow in the legs and hooves and creating a healthier, stronger hoof. The frog also helps in this process by providing a cushion and also acts like a little heart to pump the blood back up the leg. Dandy is officially a rock crusher and can go anywhere barefoot: rocks, pavement, gravel, stone dust. She is turned out in a gravel enclosure (our land is mostly gravel, we didn't put it there!) and runs and bucks as well or better than any horse. Here is a shot of Dandy's right front hoof showing how concave it is (usually back hooves are the most concave) and how I trim to allow the water line to touch the ground only.For general information, thinning my horses hooves like this have never made them crumble or crack. It doesn't make the hoof weaker, if I must say, it can only help to improve it by removing harmful pressure caused by a long wall. I am not saying that ALL horses should have hooves like this... mine have their problems too. Besides, I DO NOT thin the hoof all the way up, but only the very lower part as seen in the picture above.

Here is a video of Dandy walking... note the heel first landing on all of her feet. Look at that long stride! SOUND ALERT! Sorry for the noise, a neighbours were driving (poorly) a truck in the field in front of my dad's house... idiots...!!

Peg and Pearl have hooves as thin as paper, I trim them about 3-4 times a year!!!! They had shoes on all of their lives and left their heels contracted and pretty much petrified whatever was left of their frogs. A 2 hour ride will wear their hooves enough to have them walking on their soles, so I need a new alternative. I thought deeply about putting shoes on Pearl (my sister rides her often), but I don't like the idea and I would have to buy a lot more gear. I will consider boots like Easy-boots for her and maybe Peg too. I held back from trimming them too much since we were left unable to ride them for about 1.5 months (enough time for the hoof to grow back a little)! I will look into that option since I am much more comfortable using rubber boots than iron shoes. Boots are a great alternative to shoes and a great transition tool if you are trying to get your horse out of shoes. They are easily removed when turning out your horse and can easily be put on if your horse has to stand on hard ground for a long time or on rocky rides.

I'm back... finally!

The funeral for my uncle was a huge one!!!! There were at least a thousand people attending! He was very involved in our community so most of our little village knew him.

I am still kicking myself in the butt for that poor King. Feel free to stop reading if you think I did the wrong thing, but at least let me explain how I feel first and how this situation had me in a bind all the time.

This summer, starting in May, I brought Dandy to my SO's farm. He has a large property that I now call home... I didn't at the time this happened. But I lived there and I felt that it would be easier to care for Dandy if she was right there. At that time, I was looking for a horse for my SO. I felt like rescuing would be nice. My So had horse experience but needed a refresher... of course a rescue wasn't GREAT for him, but I figured he could ride Dandy while I re-trained the rescue. I found a nice mare online, close to where we live, she was 16 years old and retired from sulky racing. She was already ridden so I thought that it would be a good idea to get a glimpse of her. So we did. Peg was THIN, I felt sorry to try her out, so I only hopped on for about 2 minutes. There was another horse there that was even thinner than Peg... it was Pearl. Pearl was in foal and the guys selling would prefer she would come with Peg since they were bonded. I didn't really want a thin pregnant mare, but we negociated a good price for both and trailered them home the day after.

We immediatly started to care for Pearl and her foal to be, unfortunately we all know how this one ended. In the meantime, a good friend of my SO asked if he could board his four horses for the summer. I wasn't thrilled, but I didn't really have a word to say. He had a thin horse and wanted to put some weight on him. I wasn't prepared for what I saw. What I saw was a thin, neglected horse that could barely stand to his feet. he had two pretty bad saddle sores on his spine and was about a 0.5 on the scale. This horse was being ridden at a galop often enough... probably more often that I would ride my own Dandy. Seeing that all the other horses were good and fat and having a closer look at King provided an answer... his teeth were badly overgrown. So I made the owner aware of the situation and he told me that he would have them floated.

I got more and more frustrated as the summer passed. The kids were unruly and knew nothing about horses, other that horses run fast. That's what they did. All of the horses were untrained and dangerous to be around and these kids would go down the field at a full galop on them. After getting so frustrated and telling my SO to tell his friend (owner) that the horses need to go, without results, I decided to give up and completely ignore everything else that happened after that. But King would still haunt me, so I would tell the owner every time I saw him, to get his teeth done, I even once told him that he wouldn't survive winter if he didn't put on weight. Unfortunately, they thought that by feeding him a lot more would help him...

I closed my eyes on it, because our SPCA is useless even for dog abuse cases, it's obvious that they wouldn't see the condition that King was in and would have done nothing about it. The only thing I could've done is to work out an agreement with the owner that I would take King, treat him and keep him, but he would've never let that happen. If I would've called the SPCA and that they would've actually done something, they would've gave the horse to me, since there were no other horse farms in the area and that King was already on our property. I couldn't care for another horse financially and I was still mourning our loss, I couldn't bare risking another. Unfortunately, this is not the first story of this kind to happen in our area, SPCA is only taking cats and dogs and nobody investigates the cruelty cases... nobody cares! I would've had to conduct my battle alone with no results. There could have been results, but probably too late to save the poor horse.

I spent countless hours with King, but to tell you the truth, I started hating his owners, because they would take my stuff without permission, use my brushes, my first aid kit, my expensive poultices to treat their darn unruly horses and would never replace it or provide any kind of help around the farm. Four horses were free boarded on our property and there was no exchange of services. I truly believe that these people didn't understand one twig of the responsibility that horse ownership encases. We had to look after these horses and handle them most of the time, because none of them could! I got so frustrated that I vowed to stop helping them at all (and still did for the love of the horses...). When it came time to take the horses back home, we were starting to run out of pasture and told the owners that they would need to pick up their horses because food was running scarse. We did not want to feed 8 horses for free!!! We have to buy our hay and we aren't rich either, so I insisted that we wouldn't feed hay. Sounds cruel but if you'd went through all that I did, you would've been frustrated to no end!

So one day, we got the trailer, rounded up his horses and brought two of them, King and the other gelding back to his place. Yes, we trailered for free... but I didn't care as long as I didn't have these people in my things anymore. When we got there... they weren't ready!!!!! He was rebuilding fence and wasn't done! We still dropped the horses after a bit of an argument. At this point I didn't care what they did with them... this might sound cruel, but I had had enough! He asked if we could keep the two mares until tommorow and we told him that we would be there in the morning to drop them off. I had to use, my halters, my leads and none of them would've been reimbursed if their crazy horses would've broke them, that didn't happen. We finally dropped the two mares and that was the happiest day of my life.

Their poor horses are enclosed in a small pen about half an acre in size, there are 4 horses in there and the mares do not tolerate the gueldings. PLUS!!! They wanted to breed their 2 year old lame paint mare to a paint stud!!! This is a disaster, they probably will breed her this year. They know nothing about foal care, or mare care before foaling, they don't even know how long it takes to make a foal!!!! Supplements aren't in their language, although not necessarily needed, their horses would need them... deworming isn't in their vocabulary either, so the foal would probably die of parasite infestation.

I still feel guilty, but I couldn't save him and it happened that way for a reason. Even if they did float his teeth, they would've eventually gotten long and pointy again and the same outcome would've been. They are not people that I know very well and I do not keep an eye on their horses, I have enough of mine, it just so happened that King was with us for the last part of his life and that I cared for him to get back to health. I know the guy that does the SPCA stuff in our area (there is only one) and he couldn't recognize a horse from a donkey, it would've been useless and a warning wouldn't have been respected. I think that a higher power prevented me from taking pictures of King and poking my nose in there for my own sake. Remember, we had thin, neglected horses in rehab at that time too.

This as served me a lesson tough. Next time I see a thin neglected horse, I WILL take pictures and report it to the SPCA (even if I think they are crap!). I will do all that I can to save another life.

On another note... in regards to never trusting a horse. I was trimming Dandy's feet this weekend when my grandpa and uncle drove in our yard. Usually, Dandy is one cool girl and those things NEVER bothered her before. So I got up (I usually sit down to trim because of my incredibly bad back!) to talk to them, they were parked behind Dandy and the truck was still running. After we were done talking, they proceed to slowly move towards the house when Dandy totally lost it. She went flying right, hit the stool I was sitting on, then went flying left, plowed into me and my sister (I was standing with my back to Dandy's thigh), we both went flying forward, pulled my back and now I'm in a brace. We are, to this day, completely stumped as to what could've possibly spooked her THAT much. She is the one who usually runs beside the truck... I'm puzzled. With my back turned, I didn't see what her initial reaction was, I heard things being knocked down and then I went flying... It is pretty funny, except for my back... I have a hard time sitting or standing... I can't sleep because my back gets tired and muscle spasms take over, so I have to turn often and that is no easy task. Fortunately, we got her under control and calmed her down pretty quickly. Pictures of her feet to come!

So really, I am right about not letting children near our horses, even if I know they are calm and cool. These are things that Dandy sees every day, I just don't know what triggered her reaction this time. Thank goodness I wasn't still sitting on my stool or I would've been pancakes today! I don't know why, but something told me to get up in case there would be danger... I must have a gardian angel! Of all things, Dandy didn't even pull on her lead while panicking... I don't usually tie very hard and usually only have a loop around whatever it is she is tied to. I am glad that everyone is ok... well... not my back but I have learned to live with that. I will have pictures tommorow!
Have a great week everyone!

Do you like fall?! Sad news

This is a long one, so get a coffee or something!
I'm sorry, I still didn't get around to uploading pics and I don't think I will this week, unless I really push myself. The funeral will be held on Thursday and I have to clean the house a bit.


Anyways, I was going over my old pictures and found some nice ones that may take you back to warmer days... this was in the fall and it was super nice that day. Warm and sunny, just the way I like fall days!


This was taken on Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving). We were going up to my uncle's place for dinner and I decided to snap a few shots on the way. The fall colours weren't in full swing, but close enough!


These are wild turkeys in a freshly cut oat field. Wild turkeys were introduced a few years ago to our region and seem to be doing really well... in fact... they are everywhere! Hunter are allowed to take one bird per year, in the Spring. The hunt is only opened for 2 half days per year. Hopefully, they will let hunters take more since turkeys are really taking over EVERYTHING! Our indigenous partridges are starting to regress in numbers because wild turkeys destroy partridge nests and are big competition for the food. In fact, there are some many turkeys, that they had to capture and rehome about 200 of them because they were destructive to crops! We have also seen an increase in coyote population and wolves.


I took the following pictures from the truck as we were moving along the gravel road, so they may not be perfect.



These are the fall trees (with adjacent power lines... sorry!).

This is the road we are going up to get to my uncle's place, he lives about 15 minutes up this road on a lake shore.

That is a small lake we have to go by to get to my uncle's it is vry pretty when the leaves are in full swing!

Same little lake, different angle. There is definately some stuff that I would've removed from the picture if I had been on foot (Wires, red thing at the bottom!?!)... but this as taken from a moving truck!

This is a little farm near the little lake!

Same little farm, I think that this picture is very cute! Don't you all feel like running an rolling on that grass?! Maybe it's just me!?!? I think I need to get outside NOW!

On a sadder note, one of the horses that we boarded for the summer, King, has passed. I am very sad, but not shocked from these news. King was a percheron cross gelding and was 17 years old. The owners got King and another gelding for free if they could catch them. King was in good shape last year at this time, but kept loosing weight over a year's time. Last Summer / Fall King was only skin and bones. The guy brought his horses over for pasture boarding in hopes to get some weight on King. I put King as a 1 - 0.5 on the scale, he was litteraly skin and bones. Unfortunately, that summer / fall would happen to be the most frustrating one for me. These people knew nothing about proper care to a horse. When King came home he had SADDLE SORES!!!! on his spine (yes... spine), one was deep enough. Bone was sticking out everywhere on King and they would still ride him!?!?!?!? I honnestly felt like crying, raging, screaming... I was a real B**** for the rest of the time. I told the owner several (if not 20) times to have King's teeth done, that would help solve the problem. King ate painfully, spitting out 3/4 of his food. King was also fed Fat Fiber whenever the owners felt like it. King obviously had a tooth problem the size of Texas! The owners never took King to a vet and continued riding him throughout the summer / fall. I'm surprised that the poor thing didn't collapse before that!

I finally told the owner to file the teeth or King wouldn't make it through winter. He was surprised, but still did nothing. I decided to let it go, because I already had lived enough in the past months (losing the foal to an actual good reason!). He would've never took his horses back home if we hadn't taken the liberty to bring them over and drop them on his front lawn. This man had 4 horses, one of which was in obvious bad shape, one of which got injured on our property but received no vet care at all, for a cut that was about 2-3 inches deep on her back pastern, I think that she had kicked in a fence, she was crazy! One of which was lame and ridden VERY hard by a 12 year old girl (the horse was 2!!!!!) and the other had serious psychological problems that would've been easily dealt with by a trainer. All this to say that any kid was allowed on any horse (thin or injured or lame), without helmets or proper attire... I'm talking about kids from 4 to 16 years old. Tack was in bad condition and it is basically an accident waiting to happen. Now, a good horse has died for absolutely no reason other than neglect. I wish I would've done something at the time, but there is no resources for things like that in my neck of the woods... we have an SPCA, but they probably wouldn't have done anything! I knew something had happened to poor King because I drove by twice and never saw him. He was supposed to keep him inside and blanketed for the winter, but I am sure there is no blanket on this man's property and the horses don't have a good shelter to begin with, so there is certainly no stable to put him in. I'm sorry if I'm going on about this, but I feel partly responsible for not doing more, but financially, I had just taken on my rescues and had no spare cash to take another, but today, I could've taken him, but it's too late, plus, they would've never let him go.

I had vowed that if that horse made it through winter, that I would call SPCA and take him on, but it's too late now and I feel very sorry. I guess we can't save them all, but I just feel like smacking EVERYONE upside the head for that. I'm so upset! That poor horse died frozen in the cold winter. It was obvious to me that he wouldn't make it, why is it that they couldn't see it. Now the kids must be traumatized, or don't care at all... I now hate these people, I can't stand them! I feel like the next time I see him, a fight will break... IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO CARE FOR YOUR HORSES, DON'T KEEP 4 OF THEM ON HALF AN ACRE!! THAT IS NEGLECT... NOT PROVIDING VET CARE IS NEGLECT... floating teeth costs what... 50$, for all I know, he could've trailered the horse to a vet and pay for it... would've saved them a lot of psychological scars! I even feel responsible because the horse was boarded for free on our property and that no work was done in exchange for board, like it was supposed to happen. Sorry, but I am enraged. I don't think I can face these people again because the minute he will tell me that King passed, I will blow up! I don't have a picture of King, because I didn't want criminal charges against me... I was only trying the help by giving pasture and my best advice, which was obviously ignored. Did I do the right thing? I know I should've called SPCA but they probably would've taken into account that all other horses are nice and fat and that it is not a neglect case. Still I should've tried.

More news!

Did I tell everyone that I had found a vet!?!? I don't think I did.

So I found a vet in Ontario, she can't practice in Quebec (where I live), but she lives close enough for me to trailer my horse there. Anyways... I didn't have to trailer my horse at all. She gave me a medicine to clear Dandys lungs. It is a powerful expectorant made specially for horses. The only thing I had to do was to drive over to her place and get it on Saturday. Fortunately, she wasn't gone on any emergencies and gave me really good tips to help Dandy. So I put everything in practice this weekend. Starting with hay, I unrolled a complete round bale on the ground, in the fresh snow, this should help eliminate most of the dust found in it. The hay is not mouldy at all, it's still very green and smells terrific. It was baled during our only dry week of the summer and contains a bit of dust. Dandy has a habit of stuffing her face right in the middle of the bale, therefore gets a good amount of dust.

According to my vet, I did the right thing by giving Dandy penicilin (back when I did), because she did have an infection. It was clear to me that she did, since her nasal discharge was thick and white, her eyes were very cloudy and she had fever! After 5 days of antibiotic every 12 hours, Dandy seemed much better, but the cough remained. According to the vet, her lungs never completely cleared from mucus. I don't think the Cough Free helped, I think it only prevented her from coughing and releasing the mucus, but like the vet said, the mucus is really stuck there! So I give her her medication twice a day. Yesterday night was her fourth time getting the medicine and she blew her nose quite hard right on me (thanks!). There was about 1/2 tea spoon of mucus that came out. This morning, I was giving her medicine and grain and she coughed right in her bucket... there was about 2 tea spoons of mucus there... so good news... it works!

I am pretty excited about this... yes, I am excited about mucus coming out of my horse's lungs... but you have to understand, that after countless attemps to cure Dandy, then to look for a vet (quite unsuccessfully, my vet still hasn't called me back!), I was THRILLED to find someone that was willing to actually help me! I am officially changing my vet to her, she was nice and didn't make me trailer my horse for nothing! Plus it only cost me 80$ and my horse could be cured! If she is not, I will trailer her over, but it's even nicer if I don't have to! I officially called EVERY vet within a 2 hour radius from my house, most don't treat horses and the ones that do don't take new patients, and my vet is probably on vacation (it would've been nice to advise his clients and provide an alternative in case of emergency... but I guess he is affraid to lose business since his services are very expensive). So you see, in case of emergency, I might as well forget all hopes of ever saving them. This is why I had to learn to give shots, treat illnesses, abcesses, trim hooves (our farrier supply exceeds by little our vet supply) and monitor my horses health. Fortunately, they are easy keepers and in realtively good health, nothing I can't handle.

So asides from that, we've put Peg and Pearl in the same enclosure as Nabisco. We first walked them in with their halters to see how everyone would react... nothing... So I took Pearls halter off and she trotted towards the cow, the cow moved. Same for Peg, but Peg is hateful (I know, she is so sweet with humans, but so hateful to everything else). She saw the cow, took off running passed it with her ears back, nearly trampeled a cat, kicked towards the cat, thankfully missing it! Then looked over the fence at the large pasture. I think they thought they could go off running in the large pasture... surprise! Nobody is going out in the large pasture before the snow melts and the grass starts to grow. Plus the cow will calve in March-April, so we will keep her inside so that the calf doesn't get cold. Nabisco is getting very friendly and actually comes up to smell us, she eats grain from a bowl even if you are holding it and will follow us around given we are holding her grain bucket! LOL! We have never had to chase her, if we want her to move, we make her follow us with grain wherever we need her.

I have not yet uploaded my pics, but I will tonight. One of my great uncles passed this weekend and I haven't had time to play around computers (just like any other weekend!). I didn't take any new pictures this weekend since everyone was pretty sadened by the news. I will be attending another funeral within 6 months... the last one was of a friend that died from cancer back in September. I hope we will be done with funerals for a while. I don't like funerals, but I doubt anyone does... I have to go because it was my dad's uncle and they were very close. Also, I want to pay respect to him and the family. He helped us quite a bit this year, he sold us all of his hay at a very respectable price. It gave us a good boost! he was 81 years old and was active up until a few weeks ago. He plowed snow with his tractor just last Wednesday, but he was out of breath and weak. He checked in the hospital that Wednesday night and passed Sunday morning (yeaterday). I think he knew that he was going to go. He was so weak and insisted to plow snow and do at least one lenght of his farm's laneway. It was his last. He was a beef farmer only until a few years ago and always had chicken. He baled hay every year. He actually had very good quality of hay. Our family lost a good part by losing him, but he is in a better place now.

So keep your fingers crossed that everything will fall back in place for the family and the horses. I am tired, exhausted even, from all the comotion that's been going on lately.

Trailering; Cow; Interesting stuff

I would like to thank everyone for their good word of encouragement!

Jayke, I have verified for temperatures and have found that -15 C is ok!!! I would've never thought.

Dandy seems to be doing good, but I will get a better chance to see if she coughs this weekend. I also want to take her measurements for a blanket, she is growing up so fast!!!! Thank goodness she'll be four in spring because I am starting to think that she'll be too tall for me to get on without a step ladder... I'm 5'8'' but not extremely flexible! Hahahaha! I hope for no more than 16 hands... but I don't know... her sire is a 17.3 hh percheron. He is gold papered, Class A, he is 22 years old this year!!! I think I have a bad photo of him somewhere. Here! It's tiny and really off centered, but I think you can see a little of his conformation! He's still as gorgeous as an oldie!


Update on Nabisco (our cow): We finally moved her in the barnyard so she can be close to the shelter and water. She is doing great! When we brought her home, she remained in the bush for 2 weeks only coming out at night, she sometimes made her way to the shelter but was afraid of the horses and the horses were afraid of her. She remained at the other end of the 40 acre pasture ever since. So we lured her in with grain last weekend (at night), she followed us right into the barnyard so we could shut the gate. She got a bit startled but nothing to worry about, she ate her grain and tryed to go back to the woods, no deal! She then proceeded to look around her enclosure, then went in the shelter, she was a bit nervous at first, but settled right in after a few days. She now eats right out of your hand if you let her. She snoops around when we do something in there... she's like a horse! She is getting used to seeing the horses (they are not pastured together) and vice-versa. She is now settled in. I think we will keep her close until she gives birth in March or April.

She had lost a tiny amount of weight (probably from the stress of being removed from her herd), but is healthy. I am rather uneasy with cows and get nervous when they do. I'm usually able to control that when I'm around horses, but I don't know cows so I can't settle down. I don't know what is bluff and what is not, what their movements mean, etc. I know all that about horses. She is very easygoing, but she still has horns and she knows she does, she rarely uses them, except for scratching herself! I don't think we will be removing her horns, after 7 years of having them, I would feel bad removing them. They don't cause her any problems at all and are healthy. She is very tame and would not charge us for any little reason. She does get pissed when she runs out of grain, but that is just totally funny, it's like she is pouting and snorts and shakes her head when you take the pale back!! She wouldn't charge unless she was very nervous.

So I'm getting used to seeing and being around the cow... I've never been on foot much around cows, mostly on horseback, moving them... and I didn't usually put a lot of pressure on the ones with horns... My family has a bison farm and those beasts are vicious, seeing a cow with horns probably reminds me of being charged by bisons countless times... fortunately, they've never actually made contact or I could get out of harms way quick enough. Don't be mistaken, they look large and lazy but they can RUN and jump as well as any horse! We don't move them with horses since they would charge for sure. The yearlings can be handled with horses, but I wouldn't play around them in an enclosed area!

I have pictures of the Bisons. This is a male they had, he has now moved on, since a bull is only good for so many years (to prevent inbreeding). He was very gentle and you could actually pet him, given the right amount of treats! He weighed about 1 800 pounds which is not very big for a bison bull.
The cows were a bit more aggresive and we didn't even go near them if they had calves. Since they are wild animals, they need no help to calve, I would suggest you don't even go near if you care for your life. The calves are born an orange color and are SUPER CUTE. Their dark brown coat comes up later (about 2 months after birth) and consists of their winter coat. The current bull weighs in at about 2 500 pounds and is HUGE!!!! He is roughly 5'5'' + high when LYING DOWN! He is gentle unless entering the pasture during breeding season.
Here is a cow with her calf. The calves are sent for meat before they reach the 2 y-o mark. The meat is tasteful, lean and contains much less cholesterol than beef. The herd now consists of about 50 heads. These bisons are bio meat, though I don't think they are certified. We do sell meat, but the stocks are limited.
I hope everyone will have a great weekend... I will try to post more pictures, I took real nice ones of winter scenery / trees. If I can only get two minutes to upload them!!!!!

Interesting infomation!

I was just doing some reading up on trailering horses in winter... turns out that it's fine to trailer a horse in winter, even in a stock trailer. I've read this from several sites, written by vets. Our stock trailer does have a solid portion in front. It also says to not blanket too much as we would tend to do for ourselves. Horses are much better adapted to cold weather than we are and have an ability to maintain their core temperatures in very cold weather... I also read that the Guttural pouch in their throats would help warm the cold winter air before it enters the sensitive lungs!!! AMAZING! I'm not much for horse inner workings (except for hooves) so this is a first for me.

I am considering trailering now, since it will save me 250$. I will still buy a blanket and bring 2-3 liners to make sure she stays dry and cozy. The cost of the fuel will probably be about 100$, so I will probably spend about 250$ but I will have a new blanket to show for it!

Tell me what you guys think!

Have a great day!

Am I ever POed

Just a short post to say that I finally found a vet that is willing to travel to my location... only problem.... he doesn't WANT TO!!!!! I did leave a message to another vet that might just come on site, but he must be on vacation or something because he hasn't returned my calls. The one I am used to is booked and will not come over, unfortunately, Dandy is considered a new patient (since he never treated her and actually never has been on our farm (When I called for the dying foal)).

So, in order to get treatment for Dandy, I would have to trailer her about 2 hours away from home... I have two problems with that... we have a stock trailer and it's winter... not a good mix for a coughing horse. I will try and wait a week to see if the vet that would come over will call me back. If not, I will have to pack up, borrow a trailer, blanket Dandy (that has never been blanketed besides for cooling), shut every door and window on the trailer and drive rather carefully for about 2 hours, get a diagnosis, and start all over again. I don't know but I need your advice here... what would you do? Wait for the vet to call back, risk the fact that he also may not take new patients or trailer an occasionally coughing horse over 4 hours (round trip) to see a willing vet... I don't know what to do... I want Dandy treated, but I'm not good at making choices!

I will see what I can do. Getting the vet over would cost $250 only for the call, taking her over... might cost me as much as that. I will talk to my SO tonight to see what he thinks of the whole deal. Thing is, we cannot trailer in a stock trailer unless we modify something to somewhat block the vents at the top... I don't know... that could be a hazard for the horse... Plus I would need sheets to put under her blanket because Dandy is not used to being trailered and would probably sweat.

Anyways, I need to go have lunch, maybe I will have a clearer mind then. I away your thoughts...

Update

I would like to thank Jayke for her words of encouragement regarding my last post.

I think I will have a vet over as soon as I can anyways, Dandy could use a physical exam and I'm affraid of possible damage to her lungs from the cough (or virus) being present for so long. It has now been over a month, maybe two since the cough started and I'm not going to take much more of it. I tried all I could to help her and it hasn't been working, I need to go to the next level. It has comforted me to see that she hasn't lost any weight and that she is still kicking and screaming, but it happens that she coughs when playing and working and I don't like that at all!

For my little dog, his eye seemed much better last night. I had cleaned it up the night before and it looked almost perfect yesterday night. I freak out when it comes to eyes. My parents didn't really make me feel better either. It was as if his eye looked like this because I must've been a bad mom. There was nothing I could do he woke up Sunday looking like that... I was as upset about it as they were but there was nothing I could do... if I could make it magically disapear, I would've long ago, but I can't. Rant over!

I will look up more info on horse cough. Dandy puts her nose close to the ground when she coughs, she always coughs three times (I don't think this is significant info...) and it's like something is stuck in her throat... it's like she's coughing enough to gag, only horses don't have that reflex. I will look up Strangles and Choke info, hopefully I will be enlightened.

Happy New Year everyone!!

We have just started a new year, for some of us, it's a fresh start, for others it's a chance to go further, do more, do better.

I haven't taken up a resolution yet, but I would like to get Dandy in a better health. I have resigned myself to call a vet. I am pretty tight for cash in this harsh period (economically speaking) and getting a vet to my house costs a fortune. I will be saving up for this over the next few weeks, at the same time evaluating her every move. I am no longer planning on riding her at all. I am giving her the rest of the winter off. Unfortunately, this will mean complete re-training comes spring. I've rode her a week ago and noticed that she had lost a lot of her softness and is now easily distracted.

She has been getting grain and supplements for the past 3-4 weeks. I've seen some improvement, but then it's right back to square one. Her feet need re-trimming to correct the darn slant she has in her fronts (that'll probably always be there because of neglect before I bought her). She has not lost weight, she is still her same old self, she runs and plays like she used to, she just coughs... My patience is wearing thin and I'm feeling so helpless toward her situation. It's come at a bad time, I need glasses that cost me a fortune, then she gets sick and just yesterday, my dog got what seems to be an eye infection that might require vet attention. What is more important!? Can leaving Dandy with this illness be dangerous for her? What should I do? I don't want to lose her and am not ready to sell her or give up on her either. I'll call vet offices to get a price... hopefully, I can afford it really soon. I don't want to make up excuses, but I've just started in life, I have a mortgage to pay, a car, insurance, taxes and bills to pay, plus I'm up to my neck in debt from student loans, credit lines, etc. I'm 24 years old and I feel like I'm carrying a lot of stuff on my back.

I just feel like crying at the thought of everything and it has been cause for many sleepless nights. Obviously, Dandy's problem will not resolve on its own, I obviously need glasses, I can't see a darn thing, then the dog... what will become of him. I hope one of the darn cats didn't scratch his eye, that could've happened. My dog is a 3.4 lbs Yorkshire Terrier, he is 3 years old and only goes outside to do his business and play when it is not too warm or cold. If there are cats in sight, he will chase them, even though they are twice his size, they sometimes scratch at him, but they are used to being around dogs and mine don't usually send them running for the hills. I will clean out his eye tonight and see how it goes.

I'll keep posts on how things go... vets are hard to come around where I live, most are over an hour away from my farm. I only know about two that practice on horses, the others are in Ontario and can't practice in Quebec, I would have to haul my horse there and I won't do that when it is freezing cold outside. It's my only option.